IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jintdv/v19y2007i7p885-894.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Migration and welfare: a very simple model

Author

Listed:
  • Roberto Cellini

    (University of Catania, Corso Italia, Catania, Italy)

Abstract

The paper presents a very simple model of migration, relying on three widely accepted points: first, labour productivity and wages in a country depend on the present average human capital; second, agents maximise their utility, so that migration decisions depend on the wage gap across economies; third, the larger the personal human capital, the higher the propensity is to migrate (ceteris paribus). The model shows that migration through its external effects always lowers the welfare in the sending country, while the effects on the receiving country can be positive or negative. As a consequence, selfish developed economies could desire a larger migration than the optimal level for a benevolent World Planner. This calls for international coordination concerning the regulation of migration flows. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Roberto Cellini, 2007. "Migration and welfare: a very simple model," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(7), pages 885-894.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:19:y:2007:i:7:p:885-894
    DOI: 10.1002/jid.1330
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/jid.1330
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/jid.1330?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George J. Borjas, 2021. "The Economic Benefits from Immigration," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foundational Essays in Immigration Economics, chapter 13, pages 411-430, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Edward P. Lazear, 1999. "Culture and Language," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(S6), pages 95-126, December.
    3. Beine, Michel & Docquier, Frederic & Rapoport, Hillel, 2001. "Brain drain and economic growth: theory and evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 275-289, February.
    4. Stark, Oded & Wang, Yong, 2002. "Inducing human capital formation: migration as a substitute for subsidies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 29-46, October.
    5. Tamura, Robert, 2006. "Human capital and economic development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 26-72, February.
    6. Dolado, Juan J & Goria, Alessandra & Ichino, Andrea, 1994. "Immigration, Human Capital and Growth in the Host Country: Evidence from Pooled Country Data," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 7(2), pages 193-215.
    7. Stark, Oded & Wang, Yong, 2002. "Inducing human capital formation: migration as a substitute for subsidies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 29-46, October.
    8. Reichlin, Pietro & Rustichini, Aldo, 1998. "Diverging patterns with endogenous labor migration," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 703-728, May.
    9. Stark, Oded & Helmenstein, Christian & Prskawetz, Alexia, 1998. "Human capital depletion, human capital formation, and migration: a blessing or a "curse"?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 363-367, September.
    10. Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano & Giovanni Peri, 2021. "Cities and cultures," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Firms and Workers in a Globalized World Larger Markets, Tougher Competition, chapter 6, pages 153-186, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. Harris, John R & Todaro, Michael P, 1970. "Migration, Unemployment & Development: A Two-Sector Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 126-142, March.
    12. Faini, Riccardo, 1996. "Increasing returns, migrations and convergence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 121-136, April.
    13. Mr. William Carrington & Ms. Enrica Detragiache, 1998. "How Big is the Brain Drain?," IMF Working Papers 1998/102, International Monetary Fund.
    14. Riccardo Faini, 2003. "Is the Brain Drain an Unmitigated Blessing?," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2003-64, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    16. Burda, Michael & Wyplosz, Charles, 1992. "Human capital, investment and migration in an integrated Europe," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(2-3), pages 677-684, April.
    17. Schiff, Maurice, 2002. "Love thy neighbor: trade, migration, and social capital," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 87-107, March.
    18. Bhagwati, Jagdish & Hamada, Koichi, 1974. "The brain drain, international integration of markets for professionals and unemployment : A theoretical analysis," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 19-42, April.
    19. Wellisch, Dietmar & Walz, Uwe, 1998. "Why do rich countries prefer free trade over free migration? The role of the modern welfare state," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(8), pages 1595-1612, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bilal Rafi, 2015. "The Employment and Occupational Outcomes of Indian Male Migrants in the Australian Labour Market," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 18(1), pages 113-129.
    2. Phil Lewis & Bilal Rafi, 2014. "Earnings of Indian Male Migrants in the Australian Labour Market," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 17(3), pages 257-275.
    3. Kronenberg, Kristin & Carree, Martin, 2010. "Job and residential mobility in the Netherlands: the influence of human capital, household composition and location," MPRA Paper 25840, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Vikhrov Dmytro, 2013. "Welfare Effects of Labor Migration," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp491, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Docquier, Frederic & Rapoport, Hillel, 2004. "Skilled migration: the perspective of developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3382, The World Bank.
    2. Beine, Michel & Docquier, Frédéric & Oden-Defoort, Cecily, 2011. "A Panel Data Analysis of the Brain Gain," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 523-532, April.
    3. José Luis Groizard & Joan Llull, 2006. "Skilled migration and growth. Testing brain drain and brain gain theories," DEA Working Papers 20, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Departament d'Economía Aplicada.
    4. Simona Monteleone, 2009. "Brain drain e crescita economica: Una rassegna critica sugli effetti prodotti," Working Papers 2_2009, D.E.S. (Department of Economic Studies), University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy.
    5. Docquier, Frédéric, 2006. "Brain Drain and Inequality Across Nations," IZA Discussion Papers 2440, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Frédéric Docquier & Hillel Rapoport, 2012. "Globalization, Brain Drain, and Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(3), pages 681-730, September.
    7. Simona Monteleone & Benedetto Torrisi, 2010. "A micro data analysis of Italy’s brain drain," Discussion Papers 4_2010, D.E.S. (Department of Economic Studies), University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy.
    8. Chaitali Sinha, 2017. "International Migration and Welfare Implications," South Asian Journal of Macroeconomics and Public Finance, , vol. 6(2), pages 209-229, December.
    9. Gordon H. Hanson, 2009. "The Economic Consequences of the International Migration of Labor," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 179-208, May.
    10. Bongers Anelí & Torres José L. & Díaz-Roldán Carmen, 2022. "Highly Skilled International Migration, STEM Workers, and Innovation," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 73-89, January.
    11. Hanson, Gordon H., 2010. "International Migration and the Developing World," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4363-4414, Elsevier.
    12. Elisabetta Lodigiani, 2009. "Diaspora Externalities as a Cornerstone of the New Brain Drain Literature," DEM Discussion Paper Series 09-03, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
    13. Magris, Francesco & Russo, Giuseppe, 2009. "Selective immigration policies, human capital accumulation and migration duration in infinite horizon," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 114-126, June.
    14. Anelí Bongers & Carmen Díaz-Roldán & José L. Torres, 2022. "Brain drain or brain gain? International labor mobility and human capital formation," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(5), pages 647-671, July.
    15. Pieretti, Patrice & Zou, Benteng, 2009. "Brain drain and factor complementarity," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 404-413, March.
    16. Abdulloev Ilhom & Epstein Gil S. & Gang Ira N., 2020. "A Downside to the Brain Gain Story," Economics, Sciendo, vol. 8(2), pages 9-20, December.
    17. Salvador Contreras, 2013. "The Influence of Migration on Human Capital Development," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 365-384, September.
    18. Akira Shimada, 2019. "Should the Government Promote Global Education?," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2), pages 323-341.
    19. Stephen Drinkwater & Paul Levine & Emanuela Lotti & Joseph Pearlman, 2003. "The Economic Impact of Migration: A Survey," School of Economics Discussion Papers 0103, School of Economics, University of Surrey.
    20. Jean-Christophe Dumont & Georges Lemaître, 2005. "Beyond the Headlines. New Evidence on the Brain Drain," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 56(6), pages 1275-1299.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:19:y:2007:i:7:p:885-894. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/5102/home .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.